"To be number one in the world is unique and is probably my best memory. To be top five in the world ranking for nine years is also something I'm very happy with" - Stefan Edberg on his years at the top. Read the interview

General news

Stefan Edberg and Annette Olsen in the Royal Box during the 2013 edition of the Championships

Yesterday in London, in the spring press conference which is held each year two months before the start of the tournament, important details were released about the 2015 edition of the Championships at Wimbledon.

The tournament will be played one week later than usual, due to the introduction of a new week of grasscourt build-up, after the French Open. There will be new facilities for players, courts 14 and 15 will be back in use and the Hawk-Eye technology will be extended to six courts, also covering courts n. 12 and 18. This year's prizemoney will be increased of 7%, bringing the cheque for the men's and women's singles champions to £1,88m (€2,6m - $2,8m).

Former coach of Björn Borg and Stefan Edberg, Percy Rosberg, has been engaged by Stockholm's Salk, one of the oldest tennis clubs in Sweden, to sharpen the technique of a selected group of Swedish young players.

Although he has been involved in the game for the last 70 years, Rosberg, now 82, still hasn't had enough of tennis.

After discovering Borg's talent, he has been Stefan Edberg's teenage coach, in the years when the six time Grand Slam champion shifted from a double to a single-handed backhand. It was Rosberg who encouraged this choice, believing Edberg could exploit his offensive potential in a better way.

from L'Équipeby Pierre-Étienne Minonzio translated into English by Mauro Cappiello

Roger Federer's coach took sides in a dispute opposing a tennis and a golf club in the region of Var. With former rugby player Jean-Pierre Rives supporting him.

Stefan Edberg with his former sparring partner Arnaud Deleval in a picture taken in recent years

The town of Grimaud extends between the green hills and the shores of the Mediterranean. In this enchanting context of Var, near Saint-Tropez, an amazing conflict between a golf and a tennis club is taking place, worthy of an episode of the M6 tv show "One does not choose their neighbors." But a very particular episode, involving sports celebrities...

Background: on March 9th, Arnaud Deleval, a founder of SALB, the company that manages the Grimaud tennis club, was surprised by arriving at his club, to see a crane cutting down half a dozen trees next to a court. "I called a bailiff, but by the time he had arrived, all the trees had been cut," he says. "It's amazing, they made it without telling me anything, as if they were at home."

"They" is the direction of the golf course nearby, which, according to Deleval, was not allowed to order this slaughter. The event, indeed, occurred on a small part of the golf club belonging to SALB, owner of 2 of the 36 hectares that make up the course (you follow?).

In an exclusive interview released by Linus Sunnervik for Expressen.se, Pete Sampras recalled the 1992 US Open final he lost to Stefan Edberg as a turning point in his career.

The American legend, who is playing the Kings of Tennis Champions event in Stockholm, lost that match at the end of a four set battle, but gradually faded away after the third set tie-break, maybe also due to weakness for a stomach ache that had affected him during the semifinal against Jim Courier.

"None of us played really well, but he won with his experience," admitted Pete. "I remember I slowly lost the will during the match. I didn't fight. I was somehow satisfied to just be in the final. And it gnawed at me for months."

Playing a doubles match with or against Stefan Edberg would be a dream fulfilled not only for any STE...fan, but virtually for any tennis fan. International supercar driver Steve Goldfield was lucky enough to turn this dream into reality, as documented by a video he himself posted on his Youtube channel last August.

Although the clip description says the match was played "a couple of years ago", the location and Stefan's outfit seem to suggest images date back to 2003, when Adidas organized a tennis camp in Scottsdale, Arizona.

As a long-time Adidas testimonial, along with Megan Shaughnessy and Martina Hingis, Edberg was a special guest of the event, that offered wealthy amateurs the chance to meet legends and play with them.

from Sport Expressenby Linus Sunnerviktranslated into English by Mauro Cappiello

Tennis Legend Pat Cash is always associated with Swedish successes and falls. For Sport Expressen the Australian tells about his fascination for the Swedish tennis miracle, his criticism of Roger Federer and his own tennis federation and how he hated to face the Swedes. - They always made my life a pain, says Cash.

Sweden's tennis dominance in the 1980s has become famous as the Swedish tennis miracle. With Stefan Edberg, Mats Wilander, Anders Järryd and Joakim Nystrom the Vikings salvaged three Davis Cup wins. However, Sweden also collected two finals losses, in 1983 and 1986. Both times Sweden fell against Australia in a fifth and decisive match. Both times it was Pat Cash on the other side of the net.

"The Swedes were a problem"The now 49-year-old Australian has not forgotten. But he remembers the Swedes as much for his two final losses at home at the Australian Open in 1987 against Stefan Edberg and in 1988 against Mats Wilander.

For the first time since the event was established in 2012, this year Stefan Edberg will miss the Kings of Tennis, the Swedish stage of the ATP Champions Tour, that will be held in Stockholm from March 18th to 20th.

14-time Grand Slam champion Pete Sampras made the organizers happy, accepting to play at the Stockholm Waterfront Congress Centre for the first time, but the crowd will surely miss the presence of Stefan Edberg, winner of the event in 2013 and runner-up last year.

The reason for Stefan's default is probably the date of the Stockholm Champions tournament that overlaps with the first ATP 1000 Masters in Indian Wells, where Stefan will follow the action of his pupil Roger Federer.

Nick Matthew, a world class squash champion from England who is one year older than Roger Federer, met Stefan Edberg at the recent Swedish Open of squash played at Linköping from February 3rd to 8th. Matthew, who eventually won that event, had the opportunity to chat with Stefan about the secrets for a long career in sports and wrote about that conversation in a post on his blog for The Star.

It was really interesting chatting to tennis legend Stefan Edberg at the Swedish Open.

He’s really knowledgeable about squash and was very complimentary on how well I am doing at this stage of my career. That was nice to hear from somebody who was one of my favourite tennis players when I was growing up. I absolutely adored him and Boris Becker.

I spoke to Stefan a little bit about the Australian Open and Roger Federer, who he now coaches. It was fascinating to chat to Stefan about Federer, who is 33-years-old, a year younger than me.

His two keys to prolonging your career which he’s trying to work on with Federer is keeping that freshness but also keeping the speed.

Stefan retired at the age of 30. He didn’t really have much of an off season during his career. He pretty much had a couple of weeks off every year and then went straight into the next season. After playing on tour for 10 years, that caught up with him.